Bob Filner: The mayor of dysfunction

The bullying, confrontational style of Mayor Bob Filner took center stage again Wednesday as he ramped up his running feud with City Attorney Jan Goldsmith. The mayor’s conduct was beyond laughable. It is increasingly irresponsible and threatens to turn San Diego into a morass of dysfunction.

The latest theatrics began when Filner showed up, uninvited, at Goldsmith’s news conference, called to discuss legal issues related to the mayor’s legally questionable refusal to sign off on a deal between the city and the Tourism Marketing District for promotion of San Diego as a tourist destination. The promotion revenue comes from a 2 percent hotel room surcharge that is estimated will generate $30 million this year. The deal with the marketing district was approved by the City Council last year, before Filner took office.

When Goldsmith had concluded his remarks to reporters, Filner popped up to accuse him of “unethical and unprofessional conduct” for supposedly giving legal advice through the press.

“It would have been nice, Mr. Goldsmith, to have a memo,” Filner said. “It would have been nice to have advice. I am your client. That’s privileged communication. You not only have been unprofessional but unethical in this press conference. And I resent it greatly that you’re giving your advice through the press.”

What would have been nice, Mr. Mayor, would have been for you to bother to seek the city attorney’s advice in the first place – before making the decision to put a hold on the marketing district contract and the money. But in Filner’s world, it is evidently OK for him to fail to seek legal advice from the city attorney before acting, but it is not OK for the independently elected city attorney to publicly discuss the issues involved.

The mayor didn’t stop there.

“I do not have to advise you on my policy considerations,” Filner told Goldsmith. “But you ... have the obligation to defend me in any court action and to give me advice in a privileged fashion, not to announce your own policy on your own.”

In fact, since Day 1 of the Filner administration, Goldsmith has been careful to avoid any appearance that he was intruding on the policy prerogatives of the mayor and council, and he did so again Wednesday.

But when Goldsmith, a former judge and state legislator, has spoken out, Filner has responded with supposedly joking personal attacks on Goldsmith’s physical stature and appearance. Even as humor, that is not exactly the kind of thing one would expect of a politician who portrays himself as a progressive.

In the meantime, San Diego’s tourism industry, one of its most important economic sectors, will suffer because of Filner’s petulance.

After fewer than 100 days in office, it is increasingly clear that Filner doesn’t have a clue when it comes to leadership – how to implement his agenda and achieve his goals. He knows nothing about the proper role of the mayor, the City Council and the city attorney. He knows nothing about building support and coalitions to get things done. He only knows confrontation.

It was only Wednesday morning, just hours before Goldsmith’s news conference, that the mayor was actually an opening speaker at a University of San Diego forum on civility in civic dialogue.